For many fly-fishers, there’s lots of fascination in exploring the ‘fuzzy boundaries’ of our sport – situations that the great chalk stream innovator G.E.M. Skues might have recognised, such as spiders, nymphs or emergers in the surface film, when the fly isn’t quite wet, and isn’t quite dry – or the idea of skating deer-hair Bombers or waking lures across salmon and sea trout pools.

Another example is a high-floating, foam-backed Finnish streamer pattern called the Surffilauta, an apparent contradiction in terms that’s commonly used for salmon fishing, but also attracts big trout preoccupied with chasing not-so-little bleak and perch through rocky rapids between the lakes of ‘Finnish Troutland’.

Thanks to Finnish blogger and guideIiro Anttonen, ‘Surfboards’ featured in my recently-published book River Trout Streamer Fishing, and they’ve now also popped up in the Summer 2026 issue of the Flyfishers’ Journal as a key detail of Richard Tomiak’s eye-opening article on fishing at Kellankoski Lodge in Finland (a small selection is shown scattered around the Journal in the photo above – with the actual cover shot of Luke Tomiak kindly contributed by photographer Pasi Visakivi).

Mimicking stunned and floating baitfish has clearly caught the imagination of Greg Belcamino, too, whose Letter from America examines his own streamer fishing angles on fishing for predatory trout, alongside his kind review of River Trout Streamer Fishing.

What more can we say? When a fly pattern like the Surffilauta is globally hot, it’s hot!

With themes like these, as well as an introduction to Project White Hart from Alison Baker at the Atlantic Salmon Trust, Ben Doughton’s Lunn family river keeping memories from the legendary Houghton Club water on the Test, Tweedside salmon-fishing moments with Stephen Fielding, Nick Gooderham’s news of the Flyfisher’s Club Special Interest Groups, and much more, I hope this issue of the Journal includes something for everyone as usual…

(The Flyfishers’ Journal, where I’m honoured to be the Editor, is a complimentary benefit for all Members of the Flyfishers’ Club, and it’s also available to non-members by subscription.)

At the half-year point since the publication of my latest book River Trout Streamer Fishing in November 2025, copies have been making their way around the world. As far as I can tell, it’s been well received on social media, and more formally-published reviews have appeared slowly but steadily.

In the UK, the book has certainly piqued the interest of reviewers at Trout & Salmon, Fly Fishing & Fly Tying, Classic Angling and the Fly Dressers’ Guild. And, as I’d hoped, a couple of suitably European-based websites have also noticed RTSF’s focus on the continental fly-fishing scene, with well-considered responses from Global FlyFisher and Forelle & Aesche.

Here’s a taste of what the reviewers have been saying (including links to the full online reviews in the latter two cases):

‘Streamer fishing can add a new dimension to your river fishing. Theo’s book will make you think again about how you approach your favourite stream. Crucially, it will give you the confidence to try.’

• Pete Tyjas, Trout & Salmon

‘I’m trying to think of another UK-published book centred on modern streamer fishing for trout and coming up empty.’

‘Part Two is presented like short interviews [with] selected anglers from the UK and wider Europe about their fishing and flies. This section is frankly excellent: tons to learn and so many insights and ideas… simply loaded with successful trout streamers and fishing advice.’

‘River Trout Streamer Fishing is a substantial and very well produced book, excellent printing, great photographs, the text is written in a clear, readable style. Pike has assembled all the material needed to make a top-class resource or reference book. I’m already choosing the flies I want to tie for my own box.’

• Magnus Angus, Fly Fishing & Fly Tying

‘This book is a real eye-opener… It makes sense to fish with streamers because trout, especially big ones, are predatory and will devour a wide variety of small fish, amphibians and mammals in addition to insects… I shall certainly give [streamers] a go during the coming season.’

‘[River Trout Streamer Fishing] is beautifully produced and contains some stunning photographs. I feel sure that it will make many fly-fishers reassess their approach to river fly-fishing.’

• Keith Harwood, Classic Angler

 ‘Some people may think that fishing large streamers for river trout is a US thing… But the subtitle reveals that this book has another focus: UK and Europe. Of course [the Americans] have added to the game, but so has a bunch of Europeans, and many of those have found their way into this book…’

‘It’s rich in large and high quality photos of both locations, fishing, flies and anglers. The layout is light and modern and easy on the eyes… a really excellent source of inspiration for people who want to learn more about streamer fishing and expand their streamer arsenal.’

• Martin Joergensen, Global FlyFisher

 ‘British charm and European tactics.’

‘At just over 340 pages, River Trout Streamer Fishing is a substantial book – written from a European perspective… [and] this is precisely where Theo Pike’s book shines. I feel as if this book was written specifically for me and my area of expertise…’

‘Twenty experts, experienced fly fishers and fly tiers from all over Europe… are given the spotlight in the second part of the book [to] present their successful patterns and reveal the secrets to their success. The differences, as well as the occasional similarities, in the techniques and approaches they employ are astonishing…’

‘Conclusion: a comprehensive work for enthusiastic salmonid fly fishers… an all-encompassing work of great value for passionate fly fishers who have always wanted to understand the fascination of streamer fly fishing.’

• Tankred Rinder, Forelle & Aesche

‘Another new issue from Coch-y-Bonddu, this large well illustrated book is a complete ‘how-to’ on fishing rivers with streamers. This is a tactic that is often ignored or prohibited here in the UK but for those who try it and our European cousins there are many larger trout to be caught on streamers, even from small streams.’

‘Theo has gathered together a group of the best exponents of streamer fishing and as a result this book has it all… Indeed the great Oliver Edwards contributed a chapter to this book as one of his very last works and while UK anglers may not know of all the experts the knowledge they impart is pure fishing treasure!’ 

‘Lavishly illustrated with photos of flies, fish and venues this is not a book for the dry-fly purist but for the all-round angler and especially the travelling angler it is a must-read.’

• The Fly Dressers’ Guild, Flydresser

‘I’ve always wondered why the literature on fishing streamers in Europe seemingly lagged behind what we’d achieved in the US. And I’ve now learned that it hasn’t languished; it has just lacked an effective advocate willing to compile information from various angling cultures.’

‘[Part 2 is a series of streamer masterclasses with European anglers who design, tie and fish streamers, and this is a goldmine of information on fly design, tying and angling technique…’

‘Fishing streamers is not simply a searching tactic, and the degree of sophistication required to fish them effectively can be quite high… You may not necessarily land the largest trout in the river, but you may find out where that fish lives. And that will keep you coming back, whether or not you ever land it.’

‘If you’re intrigued by streamer fishing, start here.’

• Greg Belcamino, The Flyfishers’ Journal

I’m incredibly grateful to all these reviewers for their thoughtful responses to River Trout Streamer Fishing, and I’ll aim to update this blog post with further reviews as and when they appear.

River Trout Streamer Fishing was published by Coch-y-Bonddu Books (£40 + P&P) in November last year, and copies are available direct from the publisher or via Amazon.

Celebrating lady Flyfishers: the latest issue of the Flyfishers’ Journal, where I’m privileged to be the editor, marks the historic moment when Joan Wulff recently accepted honorary lifetime membership of the Flyfishers’ Club…

… complete with a fabulous front cover image of Joan herself, some time in the 1970s, generously loaned by the American Museum of Fly Fishing.

Inside, Martin Sandgren tells us about his audience with the internationally-acclaimed ‘First Lady of Flyfishing’ (during which, always the generous educator, she even took the opportunity tweak his casting style, after graciously accepting the Club’s invitation to join us!)

Within 76 fully-packed pages, this edition also praises all the other talented flyfishing women who’ve been making important and popular contributions to the life and culture of the Club, well before the welcome step of full membership became possible in 2024.

Sheona Lodge was one of these, writing more than 25 pieces for the Journal over 25 years, as well as several important books, and Jim Bennett has researched a full and fascinating account of her life to accompany a recent dedicated exhibition in the Club.

Meanwhile, Andrew Herd puts all this back story in context with a detailed and wide-ranging historical article, Ladies in Clubland. And I hope that Laura Harcourt, who has contributed a lively feature about fishing in Chile to this issue, will be one of an enthusiastic new wave of ladies who’ll be published regularly in the Journal for many years to come…

(The Flyfishers’ Journal is a complimentary benefit for all Members of the Flyfishers’ Club, and it’s also available to non-members by subscription.)

After more than 5 years in writing and design (and rather more than that in R&D) I’m excited to announce that my new book River Trout Streamer Fishing has just been published by Coch-y-Bonddu Books.

As the title suggests, it’s all about the fascinating skill of fly-fishing for trout with streamers – fly patterns that mimic small fish and other prey species.

Streamer fishing for wary wild trout is innovative, tactical, and incredibly exciting, yet it’s still under-appreciated by many anglers. So I’ve written River Trout Streamer Fishing to celebrate the growing subculture of fly-fishers who prove that casting imitative streamers for trout can perfectly complement dry-fly and nymph fishing.

I’ve also tried to tackle this subject from what I think is a relatively novel and distinctly European angle – with a Foreword from Charles Jardine, chapters on trout streamer fishing history, tackle and techniques, and discussions around the predatory nature of Europe’s native brown trout and other salmonids: where they live, what they eat, and why.

With gratitude for inspiring me and so many others, River Trout Streamer Fishing is dedicated to the late, great Oliver Edwards, an inimitable titan of British fly-fishing who pioneered the whole idea of contemporary streamer fishing in the UK with his Essential Skills DVD series.

And, to carry on helping the magnificent fish who’ve made all this possible, a donation from all sales of the book will go to the Wild Trout Trust.

At the philosophical and actual core of River Trout Streamer Fishing is a collection of 20 masterclasses from friends across the UK and Europe who have generously agreed to share their expertise and favourite flies.

Iiro Anttonen, Fred Brown, Matt Eastham, Oliver Edwards, Paul Gaskell, Mikko Halonen, Steffan Jones, Eidur Kristjansson, Rok Lustrik, Keith McDonnell, Stuart Minnikin, Sean Morrissey (and Liam Stephen for extra photos), Roman Moser (with photos from Albert Pesendorfer, and translation by Burr Boston), Paolo Pacchiarini, John Polding (with Andrew Griffiths’s photos), Tiger Stamp, Rune Stokkebekk, Ceri Thomas, Nick Thomas and Pete Tyjas: thank you all so much. Without you, this wouldn’t have been a book at all.

Huge thanks are due, as well, to many other tyers who allowed me to include their personal patterns in the streamer inspiration gallery:

Brandon Bailes, Richard Baker, George Barron, Mark Bowler, Dee ‘Skateboard Dave’ Egginton, Stan Freyheit, Adrian Grose-Hodge, Mikko Halonen (again), Mark Lloyd, Ben Lupton, Barry Ord Clarke, Neil Patterson, Martin Smith, Rune Stokkebekk (again) and Nick Thomas (again).

Links to many of these maestros can be found in the column to the right of this blog post.

I’m also incredibly grateful to…

My parents Theo and Jean Marie for sending me fishing for the first time, all those years ago; and my parents-in-law Patrick and Alexandra Mileham, for sharing family legends of a notorious ‘cannibal’ trout (and showing great love and toleration for their son-in-law’s persistently unconventional flyfishing tendencies!).

My publisher Paul Morgan, for seeing this book’s potential immediately and offering unstinting help and support when it mattered most; editor Caroline Oakley, for tightening up my text with precision and style; and designer Pete MacKenzie who laid it all out so beautifully (and patiently!).

My staggeringly talented and creative friend Charles Jardine, whose streamer fishing philosophy chimes so well with my own, and who has done me the honour of contributing the Foreword, complete with glorious artwork. I first heard the story of his big Chatsworth rainbow trout in his speech at the Flyfishers’ Club Dinner in 2023, and some of his sentiments and all of the artwork have previously appeared in different forms in the pages of Fly Fishing & Fly Tying magazine. I will always be thankful to long-serving editor Mark Bowler for allowing them to be republished in this book, and for showing such great personal support for this project from the very start, as well as supporting my writing and other work over many years.

For decades, FF&FT has been a welcoming home for many of the most progressive and thoughtful writers in our sport, and its back issues are a resource that I’ve relied on time and again.

I’m also very grateful to the editors of other magazines, ezines and websites who have shown much interest in this project: Andrew Flitcroft and Richard Baker (Trout & Salmon), Andy Taylor (Today’s Flyfisher), Martin Joergensen (The Global FlyFisher), Tankred Rinder (Forelle & Äsche) and Lasse Hallberg and William Moberg-Faulds (Flugfiske i Norden). William and Lasse have been particularly kind in letting me reproduce little-known materials about old Sami flies.

My closest fishing pals and Wandle veterans: Richard Baker (again) for playing devil’s advocate, stress-testing theories, and tying many experimental flies; Adrian Grose-Hodge (again) for literary research and global fishing expertise; and Duncan Soar for moral support, photographic advice and inside knowledge of Slovene fishing. They’ve all helped me source elusive streamers and ‘keep the faith’ at times when #ProjectFilth has seemed endless.

My wise colleagues at the Wild Trout Trust, past and present, who between them have taught me almost everything I know about trout and where they live, and discussed aspects of this book with me for years: Denise Ashton, Jon Beer, Mike Blackmore, Christina Bryant, Ed Eley, Sophie Evingar, Andy Ferguson, Paul Gaskell (again), Tim Jacklin, Simon Johnson, Nick Lawrence, Shaun Leonard, Vaughan Lewis, Patrick Lloyd, David Marriott, Rob Mungovan, David Oakley, Ed Noyes, Gareth Pedley, Charles Rangeley-Wilson, Andy Thomas and especially Jonny Grey, who cheerfully accepted the challenge of checking my chapters on trout biology and habitat with his professor’s eye for detail, and provided deep insights about Malham Tarn.

I’m also particularly indebted to the works of George Daniel, Kelly Galloup and Jason Randall for helping focus my understanding of the kinds of habitat favoured by piscivorous trout, and why I should be trying to catch them there.

Fellow writers Peter Hayes, Don Stazicker and Jason Randall (again) who have also helped enormously by reading my work at different stages, and made many helpful observations about big trout as predators, and how we fish for them, both in Europe and the USA; Don very kindly researched and filmed a unique ‘deep dive’ into streamer fishing knots too!

Many friends from the Flyfishers’ Club and the Piscatorial Society for generously helping with research and ideas: David Beazley, Greg Belcamino, the late Tim Benn, Jim Bennett, Bob Bradley, the late Allan Hardy, Henry Giles, Peter Hayes (again), Stephen Hodges, Nigel ‘Fennel’ Hudson, Charles Jardine (again), John Knott, the late Peter Lapsley, John McGill, Peter McLeod, Barry Ord Clarke (again), Neil Patterson (again – one of the original ‘Mad Men’, and my personal copywriting hero), Martin Sandgren, Don Stazicker (again), the late William Tall, Richard Tomiak, Anders Wallgren and above all the eminent Andrew Herd, who patiently read my history chapter and made sure I hadn’t got my timelines in a twist.

Hazel Edwards, for generously granting permission to include her late husband Oliver’s masterclass, including materials from his Essential Skills DVD series, in this book, and Mark Gardner and Peter Gathercole for their valuable assistance.

Claire Zambuni of Zambuni Communications, and Rachael Brady, James Doyle and Orvis UK, for giving me addictive access to the 10-foot 5-weight Orvis Helios 3.

Paul Richardson, the talented designer of Redington’s marvellous Hydrogen rod series, for conversations and advice about trout spey.

Roly Peto at Fulling Mill (and through him, the legendary Howard Croston and Luboš Roza) for enthusiastic support and vital insights into the latest streamer patterns inspired by competitive international flyfishing.

Jack Perks for his extraordinary underwater fish and other ‘prey species’ photos, and Andy Steer for his sparkling Uni Knot step-by-step drawings.

Samantha Pitcher and Jim Schottenham of the American Museum of Fly Fishing, for great generosity in lending their photo of an original Carrie Stevens Gray Ghost streamer. And Greg Belcamino (again) for offering to send a Black Ghost from his own collection across the Big Pond!

The forward-thinking Gwent Angling Society for permission to reproduce details of Ceri Thomas’s streamer fishing techniques, and the Garway Fly Fishers Club committee for running such a friendly, open-minded syndicate on the beautiful River Monnow: a valued home from home.

Martin Blain, Neil Keep, Matt Pang and many others from Friends of the River Frome, the Frome & District Angling Association and other local syndicates for keeping my true home waters healthy. And of course John Patch, and Ros and Joe Coppen, for being wonderful neighbours, and letting me fish their stretches of the little river closest to my own front door.

Many others who have offered help and fabulous photos, and shared their streamers and wisdom along the way: John Bailey, Stuart Bamforth, Graeme Barber, Tom Bell, Burr Boston (again), Dave Brown, Tom Clinton, Alex Jardine, Semih Egemen, Andy Elliott, Lee Evans, Simon Evans, Mark Everard, Dominic Garnett, Matej Gartnar, Branko and Vlasta Gasparin, Simon Gawesworth, John Glynn, Andrew Griffiths (again), Nick Hart, Nacho Heredero, Colin Innes, Sindri Hlidar Jonsson, Stuart James, Seth Johnson-Marshall, the late Kris Kent, the late Paul Kenyon, Gareth Lewis, Jim Lockyer, Jeremy Lucas, Jez Mallinson, Toby Merigan, Christian Mohr, Jonathon Muir, Bob Olach, Paul Procter, Martin Putter, Ellie Reeves, Hector Rodriguez, Vito Rubino, Nicholas Steedman, Liam Stephen (again), John Stephens, Katka Švagrova, Merlin Unwin, Damon Valentine, Elijah Wait, Peter Whipp and Michal Zapal.

All the other American streamer slingers, known either personally or through their writing, videos and podcasts, who inspired me to make this long and speculative cast of my own: Steven Bird, Jay Boynton, Kevin Feenstra, Gunnar Brammer, Tom Gamper, Andrew and Jon Hardman, the late John Gierach, Bob Linsenman, Rich Osthoff, Tom Rosenbauer, Matt Supinski and Domenick Swentosky (and his Troutbitten crew).

And most of all, my wonderful wife Sally, who I suspect now knows more about the obscurities of streamer fishing than I do… and while I was finishing different stages of this book from 2023 to 2025, took on the task of training Pippin, who we hope will grow up to be half the cocker spaniel that her distant cousin Winnie once was. I cannot thank Sally enough for her constant love and support.

(To anyone I’ve inadvertently omitted, I offer my most grateful thanks and apologies: please let me know, and I’ll gladly update this list and future editions of the book.)

Finally, to everyone who’s read this far, thank you too – and I hope you enjoy River Trout Streamer Fishing!

Every year at this contemplative time – trout season winding down, evenings drawing in, darkening days bringing back memories of family loss – there’s suddenly nothing I’d rather be doing than swinging a fly downstream.

Ultralight switch or trout spey, it’s often called now, though the latter is something of a misnomer when grayling and chub are what we’re searching for, whilst avoiding obvious trout and salmon spawning areas.

Like so much for me, it started on the Wandle: long-lining Amber Nymphs into black, chub-haunted pools in Wandsworth with my fishing buddy Rich Baker, lit by street lamps over the Mapleton Road bridge.

Later there were grayling: on the junction pool of the urban Tame and Mersey, one autumn day, refusing everything but Pale Watery spiders and hairwing emergers, dead-drifted way downstream and twitched at the precise psychological moment.

Then more chub on the Wandle, sipping Cat’s Whisker stickleback imitations in Morden Hall Park. Big ones, too, on the Somerset Frome, which love a slow-swung rabbit-strip crayfish on quiet winter days.

Of course, this is all a far cry from the steelhead fishing that it sometimes evokes. Similarly, though, it’s versatile and perfect for covering water, probing places you’re not inclined to wade – most of all when swelling flows make footholds in freestone rivers dicey at best, and lethal over slippery bedrock.

Similarly too, downstream hookups are notoriously insecure, and you’re not just fighting your quarry but also the weight and drag of the current and line. This can feel especially strange if you’ve spent much of the season with barely-there close-contact ultralight lines and mono rigs, and it’s by no means the most efficient way of actually catching fish.

Yet that’s not always the point. It’s more about turning things round, deferring gratification, fading with the season, accepting that the fish won’t always connect, and leaf hatches will get in the way.

And why you’ll sometimes find me holding these moments, swinging into the darkness…

Mayfly magic. This summer’s edition of the Flyfishers’ Journal was all about the bugs…

(I’m sure it’s pure coincidence, but both of my magazine covers so far this year have turned out artistic and sepia-toned. Maybe it’s something in the water. I wonder what’ll happen next?)

The Flyfishers’ Journal is published twice a year as a complimentary benefit for all Members of the Flyfishers’ Club, and it’s also available to non-members by subscription.

This is my second year in the hot seat as editor of the Wild Trout Trust’s annual journal Salmo Trutta. And once again it’s been an astonishing privilege to work with so many talented experts to produce 94 pages of trouty, rivery gorgeousness, including…

• Six pages of rod licence artwork (and the glorious front cover image shown above) from David Miller
• Interspecies meetings on the stream with Avi Shanker and Robin Canniford
• Heavy metal trout in hard rock rivers with Dan Osmond
• Martin Salter marking the new(ish) UK government’s homework
• Chalk stream mapping and restoration with Mike Blackmore
• An extract from Michelle Werrett’s beautiful Song of the Streams

And lots more besides…

Wild Trout Trust members should now have received their copies of Salmo Trutta 2025: membership costs just £49 (or £26 if you’ve retired) and comes with a complimentary copy as soon as we can get it into the post to you.
Sign up via the charity’s website or phone +44 (0) 23 9257 0985 if you haven’t already!

Early days on the water.

So far this year, when the fish haven’t been rising to dries, I’ve remembered my old suspicion (born from several years helping to run the old Trout in the Classroom programme on the Wandle) that savvy trout won’t just be eating insects at this time of the season.

They’ll surely also be keeping an eye out for high-protein supplements – otherwise known as innocent baby fry emerging from the gravels before getting caught up in currents they can’t resist, and carried into the danger zone…

This suspicion has paid off frequently enough to keep me fishing small streamers around the edges of the obvious insect hatches – at least when I’ve been able to get away from my desk – and Nick Thomas’s Micro Minnow pattern has been working well for imitating swim-up fry.

It’s quite enlightening to see it being snatched by trout small enough to bounce themselves off the hook after a moment or two (also small enough that you wouldn’t immediately suspect them of cannibal tendencies) but the photo above shows one of the bigger specimens that seemed to pick on one of its own helpless relatives for a tasty springtime snack.

Then, before and after the alevin hatch, or whenever the time seems right to pause and appreciate the moment, out comes the birch-burl kuksa. It’s good to be back.

Last autumn the Flyfishers’ Club (where I’m editor of the biannual Flyfishers’ Journal) took an important and very welcome step forward into the 21st century by voting in favour of welcoming women as members for the first time since the Club was formed in 1884, by a solid majority of 75%.

Naturally, I wanted to celebrate such an historic occasion with a suitable image on the front of the following issue of the Journal, and I set myself a very specific brief for this composition: dynamic, modern, celebratory, showing a man and a woman fishing together joyfully as equals, with a brightest possible future ahead.

In practice, as I’d rather expected, this wasn’t so easy to find: the one pic I really wanted had already (and quite deservedly) been snapped up by a film production company, so I had to start thinking laterally. But in the end, with lots of help from my photographer buddy Duncan Soar, and the Journal’s designer Stuart James, we produced a watercolour-style image which I think captures the moment quite perfectly.

Along with a blockbuster article from Peter Hayes on two millennia of flyfishing illustrations (often in the form of church wall paintings) across Britain and Europe, the other dominant theme of this issue of the Journal is concern over the fate of our Atlantic salmon.

Throughout 2024, worrying headlines just kept appearing: for example, scientists reporting the lowest number of juveniles in the Dorset Frome in more than 20 years of monitoring, against the background of a general population crash by over 80% in the last 40 years, and salmon having now been added to the IUCN Red List alongside elephants, pandas and polar bears.

Many Norwegian salmon rivers also suspended fishing last summer. So this issue of the Journal has a certain theme of wild salmon ecology and conservation, including our ‘good cause’ feature from the Atlantic Salmon Trust, and my own review of Henry Giles’s interesting new book, The Secret Life of Salmon.

Both remind us that we do live in times of change – but that we can all try to ‘be the change we want to see’, and that’s another stirring New Year’s resolution (early or late) for every one of us…

This year I’ve been spending a bit of time with the Vision Glass Streamer 7ft 6in 6wt rod, assigning it the very specific role of firing small streamers into nooks and crannies in tiny brooks here in Somerset.

Admittedly, for the vast majority of my streamer fishing this season, I’ve been using either 10ft 5wt or (arguably even more specialist, yet weirdly super-versatile) 10ft 6in 3wt Helios 3’s from Orvis…

… but some of my real close-to-home water is so narrow and tunnelled with trees that neither of those long rods will physically fit, and temporarily splitting them down into sections, Neil Patterson style, tends to raise fatal doubts when there’s always a chance of striking into something out of all proportion to the diminutive size of the stream.

So, what of the Glass Streamer? As I mostly expected from fibreglass, even six-inch fish will bend it into quite a satisfying curve, and I’m looking forward to finding some of the real lunkers in 2025.

Vision’s own recommendation seems to be for using the Glass Streamer on ‘smaller to medium size rivers’, though I still can’t quite imagine loading it up with a full WF6 line and corresponding leader (perhaps that’ll come later). But it’s been good fun flicking a kind of euro-nymphing / mono rig set up, which is often all you need at small stream ranges with a fly that with the right kind of cast is just weighted enough to carry itself to the target, towing ultralight line behind it like a harpoon.

(I think I saw ‘Elliezium’ using her Glass Streamer in mayfly time, so that might be another excuse to bring it out?)

Other points: I love the vivid lime green colour, and I’m still conflicted on the unconventional two-piece blank: quick and easy to set up, yet not quite optimised for travel.

And… confession time… my inner design freak tackle tart absolutely yearns for colourful agate in that bare chrome stripping ring. But maybe that’s for when I slip further down the glassy slope and commission something custom built and crazy beautiful from Sandy Nelson or Warren McCarthy… stranger things could happen!